Thursday, March 06, 2008

On Saturday I leave for Egypt for a week, and specifically Alexandria. I follow in the Italic footsteps of MARAIOC BAKEIOY MAMEPTINOC, that is, Maraios Vacceius the Mamertine, though hopefully I won't die and be buried there, as he did. His loculus with painted cover slab was found in the Hadra necropolis in the first half of the last century. He was probably a mercenary serving in the army of the Ptolemies, along with the (relatively-speaking) more famous Galatians once buried in the "Tomb of the Mercenaries" and elsewhere. For a mention of Maraios, see Gianluca Tagliamonte's fundamental study of the Italic mercenariate, I Figli di Marte, p. 211.